Felice’s laughter had tapered off. ‘This girl is a one-woman show,’ he said, without taking his lidless eyes off me. ‘I swear she’ll keep us all on our toes.’
I decided to bite my tongue. Impoliteness wouldn’t get me very far.
‘We’re calling a Council,’ Luca told Nic.
‘No way,’ said Gino disbelievingly. ‘How come?’
Nic was looking back and forth between Luca and me, trying to figure it out. ‘Why?’
Felice gestured at me in the most unnecessary dramatic way he could, as though I was his lovely assistant. ‘Your beloved Persephone Gracewell has just switched her allegiance and snitched on Donata Marino. It appears she is in need of Sanctuary.’
‘Sanctuary?’ Gino spluttered an incredulous laugh. ‘Holy shit.’
‘Sanctuary?’ I echoed, feeling the sense that I was missing the weight of the meaning. ‘Is that a thing?’
‘Yes,’ said Nic, his frown twisting. ‘It’s a thing.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE FIGHT
Sanctuary was the order of extending protection and loyalty to someone not bound to the family by blood. It was the closest one could get to becoming a Falcone without being born as one. Luca told me it would take a vote – a majority verdict – to offer my mother and me the safety I had come seeking from them so casually. If approved, they would give us a safe house and enough to survive on until Donata Marino was silenced for good.
We stood in the foyer, the Falcone boys and me, presided over by Felice, as I was questioned about every solitary detail of my encounter with Donata. I told them everything I knew – or everything she had said, at least – not knowing how much of it I could really count on. Felice couldn’t understand why she would put her faith in me at all.
I couldn’t really understand it either.
‘None of this makes sense,’ he mused. ‘Not for those Marino cowards.’
I had forgotten about Donata’s final words – Fidelitate Coniuncti – and I stumbled over them as I relayed her message to me. Luca arched an eyebrow and Felice muttered, ‘Interesting.’
‘Is it a threat?’ I asked. ‘What does it mean?’ I couldn’t spell it well enough to google it. I could barely say it.
‘It’s Latin,’ said Luca, uneasily. ‘It’s not a threat.’
Felice pulled out his phone, consigliere duties overriding his desire to question me further. ‘I’ll assemble everyone. Should be an hour, perhaps less. I’ll speak with Valentino,’ he added, directing the last part at Luca. ‘He’ll find this most strange indeed …’
‘He’s paranoid,’ Luca answered. ‘There’s nothing in this.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ Felice disappeared, his footsteps echoing down a distant corridor.
‘What was that about?’ I said.
Luca batted the question away. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
Nic was the only Falcone brother not frowning. He was relaxed, shoulders squared – a soldier, ready for whatever was coming. ‘I’m glad you came to us, Sophie,’ he said earnestly. His voice took on that low tone, like he was closing the space between me and him until it was just the two of us. ‘It’s not right what she’s doing. But she won’t be alive for much longer. We’ll make sure you’re kept out of all this, I promise.’
Dom had joined us by then. ‘Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Nic.’ He rolled back on his heels. ‘The Council will decide.’
‘I know that,’ I said, addressing Dom and trying to keep the venom from my voice. ‘I know this is kind of a long shot. I didn’t think there would be so much ceremony involved … I just …’ I turned with hopeful eyes to Luca. ‘When you told me yesterday that I could come to your family if I was ever in trouble, I didn’t think I’d ever have to take you up on it. But Donata terrifies me, and I’m sick of taking chances with my safety.’ I added, ‘I’m taking your advice. I’m being smart. I recognize I can’t get out of this on my own.’
Luca had a hand over his mouth and was smoothing his fingers along his jaw, thinking.
‘Yesterday?’ said Nic. ‘What was yesterday?’
‘We ran into each other at Stateville,’ I answered quickly, seeing that Luca wasn’t feeling so inclined. His mind was elsewhere. ‘He gave me a ride home.’
Why did I feel like I was justifying myself? Why did I feel like there was anything to hide?
Nic frowned. ‘You didn’t think to mention that to me at any point, Luca?’